2 March 2012 – 2 April 2012 Lazarides Gallery, 11 Rathbone Place, London
“Dead Meat” is Harrington’s feast which has the air of a last supper, ostentatious in its excesses and debaucherous in its crumbling beauty.
Making a departure from the battles, posturing and overt masculinity of his previous work, this new body takes a step indoors with a behind-the-scenes look at men of power. From an elaborate photo-shoot involving 6 models, costumes, taxidermy and props, Harrington has recreated an 18th-Century feast. His interest in this period refers to an era when European power was at its peak and examines its heritage in contemporary society given the uncertainty within the Eurozone, as the Asian markets’ rise and established power structures shift.
Harrington raids art history, particularly the tradition of painting as he samples classics and reworks with free association. The largest canvas from his show depicts a female nude reclining on a table, observing both herself and the view through a mirror – a direct nod to ‘The Rokeby Venus’ by Velsasquez. Referencing Manet’s ‘Dejuner sur Lerbe’, the artist has clothed his male subjects in traditional 18th century garb in contrast to their female counterparts who appear in the nude. While prostitutes from the street have been traditionally employed as models, Harrington has opted fro a 21st- Century approach, sourcing his girls through topless model websites in search of classic post-feminist beauties with no qualms about profiting from their bodies in what has become an increasingly body- conscious and pornography-soaked culture. Subtly reworking historical narratives and replacing ethnicities, ‘Mary’ is displayed as a young topless black woman, the offerings from the ‘Three Wise Men’ lifeless birds and flesh the gift: death is at the centre of glory and finery.
Harrington’s choice of materials—oil on canvas paired with spray paint—highlights the establishment and its downfall, a consistent theme from his previous work. His scenes so carefully constructed and beautifully rendered, Harrington thinks nothing of brandishing a can of bitumen black spray paint and vandalizing his own careful creation. The dialogue between graffiti and traditional fine art, abstraction and realism form the backbone of his continuing output.
Conor Harrington – (b. 1980) hails from Cork, Ireland and now lives and works in London.
He has exhibited in both solo and group shows in the UK and internationally, including London, Los Angeles, Cork, Newcastle, Dublin, New York and Seoul.
Since he began painting the streets of Cork, Ireland as a teenager, Harrington has always tread a fine line between ‘street art’ and ‘fine art’, never aligning himself with a particular movement or aesthetic but instead pushing forward with his own unique representations of the world around him. Harrington’s paintings and drawings combine historical re-enactment, F1 pit-stops, text and glamour models, his aim being to reflect the somewhat masculine visual culture we live in, juxtaposed with currently under-rated themes of dignity, courage and the quiet sense of duty to oneself and those around us.
www.conorharrington.com
